Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	good_a	king_n	true_a	3,432	5	4.3675	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35212	Admirable curiosities, rarities, & wonders in England, Scotland, and Ireland, or, An account of many remarkable persons and places ... and other considerable occurrences and accidents for several hundred years past together with the natural and artificial rarities in every county ... as they are recorded by the most authentick and credible historians of former and latter ages : adorned with ... several memorable things therein contained, ingraven on copper plates / by R.B., author of the History of the wars of England, &c., and Remarks of London, &c.	R. B., 1632?-1725?	1682 (1682)	Wing C7306; ESTC R21061	172,216	243

be And lie in mine own Ashes as you see Verlam I was what boots it that I was Since now I am but weeds and wastful grass And another English Poet writes thus in the name of Watling one of the 4 Imperial Highways Thou saw'st when Verlam once her head aloft did rear Which in her Cinders now lies sadly buried here With Alabaster Tuch and Porphyry adorn'd When well near in her pride great Troynovant she scorn'd A nameless Author hath writ thus upon this forgotten City Stay thy foot that passest by And a wonder here descry Churches that inter'd the dead Here themselves are buried Houses where men slept and wak't Here in Ashes underrak't And to the Poet to allude Here is Corn where once Troy stood Or if you the Truth would have Here 's a City in a Grave A wonder Reader think it then That Cities thus should die like men And yet a wonder think it none For many Cities thus are gone Out of the ruines of this City rose the fair Town of St. Albans remarkable for bringing forth Alban the Martyr for about the year of Christ 180. King Lucius reigned in Brittain who hearing of the Miracles and Wonders done by the Christians in divers places sent Letters to Eleutherius Bishop of Rome desiring to receive the Christian Faith the good Bishop being glad of this request sent him two Preachers Faganus and Damianus by whose faithful endeavours it pleased God the King and many of his People were Converted and Baptized the Temples of Idols and other Monuments of Gentilism were subverted thus the true Religion increased and Superstition and Idolatry decreased many Bishops being ordained and set over the People and all things setled in good order after which this religious King sent again to Eleutherius for the Roman Laws according to which he desired to govern his People to which request Eleutherius returned this answer That for the Roman and Imperial Laws they might have their defects but the Law of God could not and thereupon advised him to study the Scriptures and out of them by the Council of his Realm to enact Laws for the Government of his Kingdom For saith he You are Gods Vicar in your Kingdom and therefore it behoves you to unite your People to call them to the Faith and Service of Jesus Christ to cherish and maintain them to rule and govern them and to defend them from all such as would do them wrong c. The Christian Faith thus received by the Brittains flourished here 216 years till the coming of the Saxons But the Ramans continuing Heathens raised much trouble against the Professors thereof especially after the death of Lucius who dying without 〈◊〉 the Barons and Nobles disagreeing about a Successor the Romans stepped in and took the Crown into their hands whereupon great ruine and misery ensued to the Kingdom for sometimes the Idolatrous Romans reigned and sometimes the Christian Brittains according to the fortune of the War The first remarkable Persecution which we hear of was under Dioclesian and Maximi● when the Heathens raged so extreamly that in Brittany and some other Places there are reckoned Seventeen Thousand Martyrs who suffered for the name of Christ In this Persecution a famous Preacher called Amphibolus being searcht for to be Imprisoned he to escape the fury of his Persecutors hid himself in the House of Alban aforementioned who was a Citizen of Verulam now St. Albans this Alban was at that time a Heathen but observing Amphibolus to continue day and night in watching and Prayer he began to be convinced and to hearken to the Divine Instructions and Exhortations of this good man and forsaking Idolatry he became a very sincere Christian The Enemy having intelligence that this Minister was in his house Soldiers were ordered to search for him which Alban having notice of he apparelled himself in the cloths of Amphibolus and offered himself to the Souldiers who bound him and carried him before the Judge who was at that time sacrificing to his Idols The Judge perceiving the business said Since thou hadst rather convey away the Rebel and Traytor to our Gods than deliver him up to undergo due punishment for his blaspheming our Deities look therefore what Torments he should have suffered if he had been taken the same shalt thou endure if thou refuse to practise the Rights of our Religion Alban was regardless of these Threats and being replenished with Divine Fortitude boldly told the Judge to his face That he would not obey his Commandment Then said the Judge Of what House and Stock art thou Alban answered It is no matter of what stock I am but if thou desirest to know my Religion be it known unto thee that I am a Christian and that I imploy my self in the exercise of their Holy Religion The Judge then demanded his name my Parents said he named me Alban And I Honour and Worship the True living God who made all things of nothing The Judge being inraged hereat said If thou desirest to prolong thy life come and Sacrifice to our Gods Alban answered The Sacrifice you offer to the Devil profits you nothing but rather purchaseth for you eternal pains in Hell-fire The Judge was still more incensed hereat and commanded the tormentors to beat him thinking stripes might prevail more than words yet Alban continued not only patient but joyful in the midst of all his Torments the Judge perceiving that neither words nor blows would remove him from his Constancy commanded him to be beheaded The Executioner observing his fervent Faith and Prayers fell down at his Feet throwing away the Sword desiring rather to die for him or with him than to do Execution upon him and suffered accordingly whereby he was made a Martyr for that Faith of which he was before a Persecutor The other Officers were astonished and trembled to behold this strange Providence but at last one of them took up the Sword wherewith he cut off the Martyr Albans head In this Town of St. Albans King Offa built a most stately Monastery which we read was upon this occasion In the Year 793 Offa the 11th King of the Mercians took to wife one Quenrid of whom it is recorded that her name was Drida and that she was Kinswoman to the French King Charles the great and was for some Offence banished his Realm being put into a boat without Sail or Tackle and arriving upon the Coasts of England was relieved by Offa who was then a young Nobleman and changed her name to Quenrid of whom he became so much in love that contrary to the Will of his Parents he married her she being of a proud cruel and ambitious Nature as appears by the sequel For Ethelbert King of the East Angles a wise and religious Prince coming to the Court of King Offa being persuaded by his Nobles to desire his Daughter in Marriage was accompanied with a great Train suitable to his Quality but Queen Quenrid envious of his

at lawful distance But now he resolved to eat grass with Nebuchadnezzar till it pleased the Queen to restore his senses she being overjoyed with these Speeches Would to God said she his deeds would be answerable to his words he hath long tried my patience I must now make tryal of his Humility Upon which the Earl became so confident of the Queens favour that being denyed a Suit about farming sweet wines he conspired with others to seize her Person and which more alienated her affections than any thing else she heard he despised her Person and that he had said That the Queen was now old and decrepit and withered as well in mind as in body After this he made an Insurrection in London which not succeeding he was sent to the Tower and being arraigned together with the Earl of Southampton by his Peers was found guilty and Feb. 25. 1601. was to be the fatal day in the mean time divers Ministers were sent to comfort him The Queen now wavered in her self one while remembring former kindnesses she would not and then again she would have him die because of his stubborness in not asking her mercy and his openly saying That he could not live but she must perish So that she gave order for his death within the Tower where he spake to this Purpose My Lords and Christian Brethren who are present witnesses of my just punishment I confess to Gods Glory my self a most wretched Sinner and that my sins in number exceed the hairs of my head that good which I would have done I did not and the evil which I would not that did I for all which I beseech my Saviour Christ to be a Mediator but especially for this my last crying sin I beseech God Her Majesty and the State to forgive me and bless her with a prosperous Reign with a wise and understanding Heart to bless the Nobles and Ministers of the Church and State I likewise beseech you and all the world to have a charitable opinion of me fo● my intention toward her Majesty whose death I protest I never intended nor any violence toward her Person I thank God I never was an Atheist in not believing the Scriptures nor a Papist to trust in my own merits but am assured to be saved by the merits and mercies of Jesus Christ my Saviour This Faith I was I brought up in and herein I am now ready to die beseeching you all to join your souls with me in Prayer that my soul may be lifted up by Faith above all earthly things and lastly I desire forgiveness of all the world even as freely as from my heart I forgive all the world And then kneeling down said I have been divers times in places of danger where death was neither so present nor so certain and yet even then I felt the weakness of my flesh and therefore now in this last and great conflict I desire the assistance of Gods Holy Spirit and so saith Mr. Speed with a most Heavenly Prayer and faithful constancy as if his soul had been already in heavenly fruition he laid himself on the block and spreading abroad his arms the appointed sign with three strokes his head was severed from his body for which the Executioner was in danger of his life at his return if he had not been secured by the Sheriff of this great Favourite Dr. Fuller concludes That his failings were neither so foul nor so many but that the Character of a right worthy man most justly belongs to his memory It is recorded that Walter E. of Essex his Father having wasted his Spirits with grief fell into a Dysentery whereof he dyed after he had requested such as stood by him That they would admonish his Son who was then scarce ten years old that he should alwaies propound and set before him the 36th year of his life as the utmost he should ever attain to which neither he nor his Father had gone beyond and his Son never reached to being beheaded in the 34th year of his Age so that his dying Father seemed not in vain to have admonished him as he did but to speak by Divine inspiration and suggestion Hereford is the chief City of this County seated amongst pleasant Meadows and Cornfields Lemster is another Town which hath the greatest fame for Wool which they call Lemster Oar of which Mr. Drayton thus writes Where lives the man so dull on Brittains furthest shore To whom did never sound the name of Lemster Oar That with the Silkworms web for smallness may compare Wherein the winder shews his Workmanship so rare So doth this Fleece excell all others in the Land Being neatly bottom'd up by natures careful hand This County is divided into 11 Hundreds wherein there are 8 Market Towns 176 Parish Churches and is in the Diocess of Hereford Out of it are elected 8 Parliament Men for the County 2. for Hereford 2. for Lemster 2. for Webly 2. and gives the Title of Earl to Leicester L. D' Eureux HVNTINGTONSHIRE is surrounded with Northampton Bedford and Cambridgeshires being small in extent hardly stretching 20 miles outright though measured to the most advantage it is good for Corn and Tillage and toward the East very plentiful for feeding Cattle Huntington is the chief Town of all the County called in their publick Seal Huntersdune The Hill or Down of Hunters and gives name to all the Shire Godmanchester is a very great Country Town and of as great repute for Tillage no place having more Ploughs or more stout Husbandmen for they boast that in former times they have received the Kings of England as they passed in their progress this way with ninescore Ploughs brought forth in a rustical kind of Pomp as a Gallant show when K. James came first into England the Bayliffs of this Town presented him with 70 Team of Horses all traced to fair new Ploughs to shew their Husbandry of which when the King demanded the reason they told him That it was their ancient Custom whensoever any King of England passed through their Town so to present him And added further That they held their Lands by that Tenure being the Kings Tenants The King was much pleased herewith bidding them use well their Ploughs and said he was glad he was Landlord of so many good Husbandmen in one Town St Ives is another Town in this County reported to be so named from Ivo a Persian Bishop who it 's said about the Year of Christ 6●0 travelled through England Preaching diligently the Christian Religion and dying in this place left his name thereunto There are two little Springs at Ayleweston in this County the one fresh and the other somewhat brackish the latter they say is good for Scabs and Leprosie and the other for dim sights The Lake of Wittlesmere and other Meers near it in this Shire do sometimes rise tempestuously in calm and fair Weather and make Water-quakes by reason the ground near it is rotten and hollow